300 Miles in a Toyota Tacoma. Luggage Overboard!

Colorado Travelog #7
Glenwood Springs, CO - Sunday, 3 Jul 2022, 9am

Yesterday was kind of a shit day to kick off our week-long vacation in Colorado. But today's a new day and we're looking forward to having positive experiences.

Speaking of experiences, we've had positive and negative with our rental vehicle this trip, a Toyota Tacoma TRD Offroad 4x4 pickup. That name is quite a mouthful, so we call it either "The Taco", which is a common nickname for this model, or "The Turd" since the TRD decal on the rear flank is huge.

Ordinarily I write about rental vehicles after the trip is done or at least mostly done; but here we've already covered nearly 300 miles (297, to be exact) in the first 24 hours.

We've owned and driven 4x4 SUVs, first a Jeep Cherokee and then a Nissan Xterra, for years so we're familiar with how such vehicles drive. In particular we're very aware of the tradeoffs of driving a body-on-frame light truck as opposed to a conventional modern passenger car. Here are 3 things:

• Compared to other 4x4s we've owned, the Taco has a stiffer suspension. That seems like it could be a liability on less-than-perfect roads, but the Taco manages to keep things from being too bouncy. Offroad the stiff springs are a help. It feels like you're driving in "boss mode".


• Compared to other 4x4s we've owned, the Taco feels down on power. The TRD comes standard with an upgraded engine, a 3.5L V6. The base engine is a 2.7L inline 4. The six makes 278 HP and 265 ft-lb torque. These numbers slightly surpass the specs of our 2011 Nissan Xterra's 4.0L V6 engine... on paper. On pavement the Taco feels underpowered and protests loudly when asked to accelerate at highway speeds.


• Compared to an SUV, interior space is at a deficit. Even with the rear seats folded down in this Double Cab model, there just isn't a lot of space for luggage. Our 1 big and 2 medium suitcases fill it up. That's okay for a simple drive from point A to point B, but not for a road trip like this where we're basically living out of the car for 9 days. We need space to spread out. We need to store various gear like boots, hiking bags, camera bag, and changes of clothes for quick grab-and-go.

Basically the space in this car does not work for us this trip. That's on me, though. I didn't think through it carefully enough.

If it doesn't fit, throw it overboard!

So, what do you do when the bags don't all fit? You throw one overboard! And that's exactly what we did just a few minutes ago this morning. 😨

It helps— for purposes of making this decision— that our big suitcase just started to break. One of its wheels is splitting. We noticed yesterday when leaving the previous hotel. When it's empty it's not too hard to pull, but when it's full, and especially when there's carpet instead of a smooth floor, it's hard to roll. We tossed it in the hotel trash bin this morning!

We don't have to replace the suitcase right away. For the next several days we're totally fine with a bunch of loose bags in the back seat. Those are the hiking bags, boots, bag of sunscreen tubes, small cooler, etc. that we packed in the big bag for the flight out here. We're better without the big bag while we're driving. But we'll have to replace it before we fly home on Saturday afternoon. It looks like we'll be going shopping Friday night or Saturday morning!

Hiking Rifle Falls

Colorado Travelog #8
Rifle Falls State Park, CO - Sunday, 3 Jul 2022, 10:30am

Day 2 of our Colorado Road Trip has gotten off to a beautiful start. We slept in a bit, then after jettisoning our excess baggage (literally) we had a pleasant 45 minute drive, mostly on country roads, to Rifle Falls State Park. The sun has been shining nicely, and the park was just starting to get crowded. Meaning, we got one of the last parking spaces near the trailhead.

Rifle Falls is a small park. You can see all the best parts with less than a mile of walking. But boy, does it pack a punch.



The highlight is the triple waterfall on Rifle Creek. The stream splits just slight above the falls and pours over these three chutes.



Various short paths lead to different vantage points for viewing the falls. In the photo above I've taken a path around to the left from the bottom and climbed up old debris below the cliff.

In these photos you can see there are hollows and caves in the cliffs. That's because the stone is very soft. It's limestone (calcium carbonate). It erodes easily from wind and rain.

Often erosion is also the story of how waterfalls form. Here, though, the falls seem to have formed from the opposite of erosion. The cliff was built up by calcium carbonate deposits from the water. Over time the cliff got taller and taller from deposits and dammed up the stream into a lake above.



Unique geology aside, Rifle Falls is a fun place to visit. The cliff is riddled with limestone caves, most of them small but a few quite big. There's even one that goes behind the largest falls.